Magazine: Rolling Stone
Section: ROCK & ROLL
RETREAD SNEAKERS
The duo releases a collection of new old songs
THE PRESS RELEASE ACCOMPANYING RACKET, a CD of vintage material
by the indie-pop pioneers Sneakers, doesn'tmince words: "Breakup
of Sneakers announced. North Carolina's trend-breaking punk pop
band has called it a day for thelast time."
Never mind that Sneakers ceased to function fifteen years ago. Or
that their alumni have since formed and folded the dB'sand Let's
Active, worked with Alex Chilton and the Golden Palominos and
produced countless groups, including R.E.M. Thispast December
found the two living legends of Southern power pop - Chris Stamey
and Mitch Easter - singing andstrumming a half-dozen Sneakers
songs in a Winston-Salem record store. "It was a classic
show," says Stamey, laughing.Mitch had to fly in from
someplace or other, and we walked onstage and played the first
song tuned to two different keys."
Sneakers' lofty place in America's indie underground stems from a
self-released 1976 record, Sneakers, that crammed sixsongs on
seven inches of vinyl for $1.98 and sold maybe 3000 copies. One
of the earliest punk do-it-yourself releases,Sneakers waved a
flag for young bands everywhere to start their engines.
Friends since grade school and musical associates for nearly as
long, Stamey and Easter were in college when they
formed the short-lived Pedestrians with drummer Will Rigby and
bassist Robert Keely. "We did one show in the cafeteria
atDuke University," says Stamey. "It was such a
disaster - my guitar broke in half - that I said, 'Playing is too
much trouble,let's make a record.' I was so embarrassed about how
awful it was that I didn't get Mitch to play." Easter
confirms theaccount: "The band broke up, and when they got
back together [as Sneakers], I wasn't playing with them. Chris
thought Iwouldn't do it, though I would have." Soon he did.
Recorded on a Teac four-track by Don Dixon, the EP garnered rave
reviews in alternative-rock journals, and Sneakers evenplayed
Max's Kansas City, in New York. Easter marvels at the memory:
"We thought we'd hit the big time." Sneakersceased to
exist when Stamey moved up to New York the following year; the
posthumous In the Red mini-album wasassembled from various
sources, including a French project Easter had done for school.
Racket contains both original records, along with several new old
Sneakers tunes. "Chris and I went through all the tapeswe
could find," says Easter. "We found pieces that would
remind us of old songs, but we didn't have tapes of them. So we
re-recorded them." With bassist Gene Holder helping, Stamey
and Easter spent a couple of days at the latter's Drive-inStudio
cutting three tunes from scratch. "We didn't sit down and
arrange and craft the songs," says Stamey. "We just
laidlem as we remembered 'em." The conscientiously simple
results coexist nicely with the old tracks' low-tech production;
thewinsome Racket fairly sparkles with supremely catchy,
inventive guitar rock that transcends technical limitations.
Since Let's Active broke up, Easter has been busy producing
records and stockpiling songs for a solo effort. Besidespreparing
another chapter from his past - an unissued late-Seventies dB's
album - for release this summer, Stamey has aduo in North
Carolina with guitarist Brent Lambert.
As pleased as he is with Racket, Stamey is not overcome by its
significance. "It's not a record to be reverential about,"
hesays. "It's a record to be enjoyed." No problem.
PHOTO: Mitch Easter (left) and Chris Stamey (CHARLES REGISTER)
By Ira Robbins
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Source: Rolling Stone, 4/29/93 Issue 655, p1 9, 1/2p, 1 c.Item
Number: 9304210281
